Original Luftwaffe Officers Peaked Cap

Description

Original Luftwaffe Officers Peaked Cap

A near mint condition Luftwaffe Officer’s Peaked cap  in superb condition, by EREL . Fine looking cap with full bullion insignia, eagle and cockade. Celluloid triangle inside of the cap with full EREL makers name ,sweat band is also marked EREL . Inside of cap also has officers name.

new private collection

Original Luftwaffe Officers Peaked Cap

The Luftwaffe, from its founding in 1933 to the end of World War II in 1945, used ranks similar to other air forces at the time; however, some Luftwaffe ranks had no equivalent in the Allied air forces. While many ranks might have equivalents in other air forces, in reality the Luftwaffe military had a far greater responsibility; while officers of the Royal Air Force, the British Air Force, were graded to a higher rank when performing higher rank functions, Luftwaffe officers maintained their rank while performing functions, regardless of size of the responsibility assigned to them.

The Luftwaffe^{[N 2]} (German pronunciation: [ˈlʊftvafə] (listen)) was the aerial-warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht before and during World War II. Germany‘s military air arms during World War I, the Luftstreitkräfte of the Imperial Army and the Marine-Fliegerabteilung of the Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which banned Germany from having any air force.

During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base in the Soviet Union. With the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe‘s existence was publicly acknowledged on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through German rearmament and conscription would be announced on 16 March.^[6] The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a valuable testing ground for new tactics and aircraft. Partially as a result of this combat experience, the Luftwaffe had become one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced, and battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II broke out in September 1939.^[7] By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwader (wings). The Luftwaffe also operated a paratrooper force known as the Fallschirmjäger.